Novela no precisamente trepidante en cuanto a acción, pero sí desde el punto de vista psicológico. El ambiente de la espera angustiosa se puede casi respirar en algunas fases. Revela por otro lado los conflictos internos entre combatientes enemigos dentro del mismo bando. Lectura recomendable. ( )

I liked this a lot.

It's a long novel and fairly slow in places. The opening section of the novel, where Steiner and his platoon are trapped behind enemy lines and sneak back, encountering an all-female Russian unit on the way, is probably the strongest of the novel and could even have been a a stand-alone novella.

The description of the action feels very true to real life:
- There are a lot of characters, some of which appear and disappear again very quickly. In a less realistic novel they would have been turned into a composite character.
- The initial characters are killed one by one in well described, but chaotic, military action scenes until the protagonist, Steiner, and the antagonist, Stransky, are practically the only people left.
- There are several loose ends and plot threads that go nowhere, such as one character being homosexual.
- Random events and 'deus ex machina' like stray shells kill characters, bringing their part of the narrative to a sudden halt.

Although the author has an annoying, to me at least, tendency to tell the reader the outcome of an event and then go back and show what happened, what holds this rather diary-like account of combat at the front together as a story is the feud between Steiner and Stransky which builds throughout the novel until a confrontation at the end.

Battle scenes are interspersed with scenes of the various characters discussing their philosophies of life and the fact that Germany is doomed and they personally are unlikely to survive the war (the real unit the story is based on and that the author served in had 700% casualties during WW2, i.e. it was wiped out and rebuilt seven times).

In places I thought the translation wasn't perhaps doing full justice to the text, seeming a bit stilted. Some of the technical word choices such as translating "sub-machine gun" as "Tommy Gun" were questionable too.

I found the very end of the novel a little unsatisfying, I won't spoil it but suffice to say the ending is left open and there are not really any answers.

For those who have seen the classic film, staring James Coburn, the novel is quite similar, or at least the first two thirds of the novel are. The ending is thematically similar to the film, leading up to a confrontation between Steiner and Stransky, but in detail it is quite different. The film is well known as having a rather bizarre and ridiculous end sequence, as the production company ran out of money forcing them to cobble something together. The novel covers similar ground but in a much more extended sequence where the company fights the Russians, and each other, in an abandoned factory.

Overall, a gripping and realistic account of war. In the end the novel is a large scale vignette of life at the front - the war was going on before the start of the story and it will continue after the end - the heroism or cowardice of the characters is futile. Which is perhaps the point. ( )

גרמנים נלחמים בגרמנים בחזית הרוסית. את הספר שאלתי מן ההורים של צילה בוקסר ( )

"-Non lo vede?- Il maggiore battè di nuovo la palma della mano sul tavolo facendo traballare i bicchieri.-Allora voglio spiegarglielo:la differenza consiste nel fatto che i nostri uomini non hanno più ideali. Essi non lottano più nè per la libertà nel mondo nè per conquistare l'Est,nè contro invasori o predoni,nè tanto meno per uno Stato il cui assetto politico li entusiasmi. Essi lottano unicamente per salvarsi la vita,per la loro maledetta carne infelice che portano in giro e se lei non ammette questo..- Ammutolì sotto lo sguardo freddo di Starnsky.-Le sempra poco?-gli domandò allora.
-Certo,è molto-Aggiunse Kiesel-ma non è tutto,altrimenti i nostri uomini avrebbero disertato già da lungo tempo.Forse potrei...-si rivolse al maggiore-completare il suo pensiero.La carne del soldato è paziente,come lo è la carta.Può essere adoperata nel modo e per lo scopo che si desidera e se ne può fare un uso buono o cattivo. Nel nostro caso se ne è fatto cattivo uso adescandola con i cosidetti valori morali;la si è assassinata e lasciata assassinare tranquillamente fin tanto che sembrava fosse ancora qui per propria volontà. Ma dietro di essa si cela anche l'onestà del soldato semplice,che si ribella e non vuole abbandonare il compagno d'armi e possiede ancora e sempre un ultimo raggio di speranza." ( )

3447. The Cross of Iron, by Willi Heinrich (read May 22, 2001) This novel by a German who fought on the Russian front was first published in English in 1956. It is a fast-moving suspense-filled account of a platoon in Russia. The Book has echoes of All Quiet on the Western Front (which I read Nov. 4, 1957) but is written in a more florid prose. I found it hard to stop reading, though I wondered if it was "pulp fiction." This is a most powerful book and I gobbled it up. I would now like to watch the movie. ( )